A Singapore girl now living in Shanghai after more than a decade in Western Europe. This blog records some of my recipes (mainly fusion), thoughts and life.

vendredi, juillet 03, 2009

Indian Fasting Menu

Indian Fasting Food

Eldest Son was invited to a play date with his friend Ameya and at the same time, I was invited to lunch at their home with the 2 terrors Babies. Sh informed me that she would be preparing a typical Indian fasting menu and I was pretty glad since God knows I should be fasting since in a few days I would back home binging for nearly 2 months.

Honestly if that was called fasting I could understand why apart from Gandhi and P's dear Hub, I couldn't really think offhand of any very thin Indian. I think like any self-respecting Asian, we love to eat too much to resist making an occasion out of the simplest of meals.

Back where they come from, fasting food includes peanuts and other dried nuts and fruit, varai, rajeera, sago, potatoes...

Fasting often takes place for various religious or spiritual reasons, though it doesn't necessarily mean abstaining from eating, but simply abstinence from certain foods e.g. non-veg, cereals. Because of the dietary restrictions imposed by fasts and their frequency, a whole cuisine of fasting food has emerged, particularly in Maharashtra, making the fast a feast - as I would discover today.

We had spiced potato and sago patties, peanut curry, varai (couscous-like grains), pan-fried potatoes and fresh watermelon. Needless to say all good and not very dieting material.

Henna Art

We spent a few hours chatting after lunch and the Babies got their palms hennaed by Sh who's quite the expert. That stopped them from slapping or strangling each other for a while - great idea.

This morning I bumped into Jan at Armani where I went to finish up shopping for gifts to bring home. Got Baby Girl 2 great bikinis which would go nicely with my own 2 from La Perla yesterday. With this, unless I go to Esselunga or the Grande Emilia in the next 4 days, I suspect that I would have seen the last of my lady friends for the rest of this summer. Bis September!